Moderna Records $1.2 Billion Deficit Amid 94% Drop In Covid-19 Vaccine Sales.

Moderna, the pharmaceutical company, reported a loss of $1.2 billion in the first quarter of 2024. The decline in sales of its COVID-19 vaccine, called Spikevax, was held responsible for this significant loss. According to the company’s earnings report on May 2, Moderna’s first-quarter sales of Spikevax amounted to $167 million, reflecting a massive drop of 94 percent compared to the prior quarter’s $2.8 billion.

Modernas attributed this decline to the anticipated shift towards a seasonal COVID-19 vaccine market. The company stated in its report that the prior year period primarily included revenue from delivered doses deferred from 2022.

In the United States, Moderna sold $100 million worth of its COVID-19 vaccine doses in the first quarter. The company is optimistic about witnessing a higher vaccine uptake as it hastens the release of its latest 2024-2025 Spikevax formula to align with the distribution of flu shots during the fall influenza season.

Regarding its sales outlook, Moderna reaffirmed its 2024 product sales forecast in the United States. As it enters the second year of the commercial endemic COVID market, Moderna’s focus lies in collaborating with public health officials, healthcare providers, and pharmacies to improve vaccination coverage rates and mitigate the significant burden imposed by COVID-19.

Moderna is also conducting clinical trials for an all-in-one vaccine against the flu and COVID-19. This combination vaccine, named mRNA-1083, is expected to yield data sometime in 2024.

The pharmaceutical company further reiterated its expectation to receive regulatory approval for its respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine in time for it to be included in this year’s fall vaccine campaign in the United States.

Moderna has expressed hope that its experimental shots, including those for RSV, flu, and cancer, will compensate for the decreasing revenue from the COVID-19 vaccine.

Pfizer, another prominent name in the pharmaceutical industry, also released its first-quarter results for 2024 on May 1. The company reported total revenues of $14.9 billion, reflecting a 20 percent decline compared to the same quarter of the previous year, which witnessed revenues of $18.5 billion.

Profit for Pfizer fell by 44 percent, dropping from $5.5 billion in the first quarter of the previous year to $3.1 billion in the first quarter of this year. The decline in sales of its COVID-19 vaccine, Comirnaty, and its COVID-19 antiviral treatment, Paxlovid, was responsible for this revenue slump. Both products experienced significant declines in the United States and globally.

In the United States, sales of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine plummeted by 64 percent, while in other countries, it fell by 91 percent, resulting in an overall worldwide sales decline of 88 percent.

Paxlovid sales experienced a mild decline of just 8 percent in the United States during the first quarter, compared to the same period the previous year. However, the antiviral treatment performed poorly in other countries, witnessing a substantial decline of 89 percent, resulting in a total worldwide sales drop of 50 percent.

The adverse effects commonly associated with COVID-19 vaccines include general symptoms such as fever, fatigue, and overall discomfort, according to the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. However, there are other known side effects acknowledged by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including heart muscle inflammation (myocarditis) and inflammation of the lining outside the heart (pericarditis), linked to mRNA COVID-19 vaccines produced by Moderna and Pfizer.